The move comes after national parks such as Yosemite began enforcing individual bans on the use of unmanned aircraft amid increasing numbers of visitors using drones to shoot video or observe wildlife in the parks, reports The Huffington Post.

What led to the park service's new anti-drone stance?

Harassing the Bighorns

Among the incidents cited by the park service in instituting the ban on drones over park land was an incident in Zion National Park earlier this year, in which volunteers observed a remote-controlled drone "harassing" a herd of bighorn sheep, in the process separating young sheep from their mothers.

The policy memorandum signed by NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis on Friday directs park superintendents to add rules prohibiting the use of drones within national parks to each park's regulations.

Though all previous permits issued for drone use in national parks will be suspended pending review, new permit applications will still be accepted and reviewed by the NPS' Associate Director. The rules also note that the NPS itself may use drones over park land for "purposes such as search and rescue, fire operations and scientific study."

The new rules are temporary, pending an overhaul of the National Park Service's regulations, a process which the press release notes could "take considerable time."

The release also notes that the Federal Aviation Administration still has primary jurisdiction over national park airspace. The FAA has said that it plans to issue new rules for commercial drones sometime in 2015.

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